I think you've got it the other way around. The best players have been the younger guys, Fleury, Crosby, Whitney, all beating out the older vets that were brought in to carry the younger guys. It concievable that the rooks started to feel like they were, if anyone was, carrying the older guys on their backs and taking the shelling for it.

Canes-KA14 wrote:I'm finding it very interesting reading these threads and all the Recchi bashing. Since I'm not from Pittsburgh, I'm not privy to your papers, and especially to your radio or TV coverage.

But from what I've heard here in Raleigh, it sounds like it's been more than just Recchi - that there really may have been a big rift in the Pittsburgh locker room where the older vets were frustrated with the overall poor play and the younger players willingness to accept it.

Again, take that perspective with a grain of salt, it's OUR media's spin on the situation. I just thought I'd toss into the ring what we've been hearing.

Canes-KA14; Basically fans believe what they personally want to believe & that's not always the truth. Now we're hearing about how Recchi was also less than a teammate in the Flyers room as well? Er...again, I've heard nothing but the opposite of that. And I'm sure if I had the time (which I don't) I could find things to say quite the opposite. There was talk many times in Recchi's tenure as a Flyer to make him captain he was that valuable in the locker room as well as on the bench!

A quote from an older article by Larry Wigge in the Sporting News says he & Tocchet were invaluable...~*sigh*~

Tocchet, like Recchi, always seems to know the right thing to say in the locker room.

"I think I know better what it takes to win the Stanley Cup than the last time I was in Philadelphia," Tocchet says. "I'll use an example of what I told Keith Tkachuk and Jeremy Roenick in Phoenix. I told them it took Stevie Yzerman 10 years to realize that he was a great player. But to be a leader is something totally different. He and Mike Modano and Mario Lemieux, those guys learned they had to sacrifice their individual goals for the good of the team.

"The most important thing to win a Cup, everyone has to contribute. It can't be just one guy. Whether you're a fourth-line guy, whatever role you play, that's what is important. We couldn't have won championships in Pittsburgh without Mario Lemieux and all the stars. But we also couldn't have won without the Troy Loneys and Bob Erreys, either."

With lieutenants such as Recchi and Tocchet around him, look for Lindros to bring his best performance to the postseason.

wondermoose wrote:I think you've got it the other way around. The best players have been the younger guys, Fleury, Crosby, Whitney, all beating out the older vets that were brought in to carry the younger guys. It concievable that the rooks started to feel like they were, if anyone was, carrying the older guys on their backs and taking the shelling for it.

I think that's it exactly. I'm not saying I'm right or wrong, I'm just saying it's what we're hearing here. Obviously there is SOMETHING to this story, and if there really was an age rift if the locker room, then the players themselves have differences of opinions on who was right or wrong. And if that's the case, then the news stories that get shared will be different based on who was interviewed. Recchi is a bigger name nationally than your younger guys so it's only natural that the media outside of Pittsburgh would come to him first and his side of the story would be what gets spread around. Now that he's gone, the local media is talking to the other players and hearing the other side, but the national media has moved on since the trade deadline is passed. Hence this story is now only a local one...

Anyway, that's my take. I've been wrong before, so who knows. We don't get to see much of the Pens around here, we just see the scores on ESPN, and the standings in the paper. So we're not the best judge of who's playing well and who's not. And for that reason, I'm not taking sides. I'm just reading along because it's an interesting story.

BCHill wrote:Ginger, I'm glad someone on this board has some common sense.

Amazing how everyone but 2 people - Madden and Bowser - claim the opposite about Recchi.

Personal experience shows me he is a class act.

So you've been a rookie teammate of Wreck's? Help us with this "personal experience." My "personal experience" tells me that he was a defensive sieve this year and that there's an awful lot of conjecture about his locker room antics for it to be all imaginary.

Bowser wrote:I'll put my two sources up against some arse-kissing writer from Philadelphia or Carolina. Or some players who never had to deal with the backstabbing that Recchi performed this season in Pittsburgh.

LOL. Well again we're not local so you win there.

But don't for a moment think we've got arse-kissing writers here. The ones we have are second rate, and were passed over when it came time to cover the big three ACC teams in the area. You can feel the disdain dripping from their articles, and it's these redneck reporters that are our one big obstical we've yet to overcome in winning over the entire area. They are as much a cancer to us as you claim Recchi was to you.

BCHill wrote:Ginger, I'm glad someone on this board has some common sense.

Amazing how everyone but 2 people - Madden and Bowser - claim the opposite about Recchi.

Personal experience shows me he is a class act.

I think both sides are right with Recchi. I think he had a bad few months in the locker room. I don't know if this is true, but we keep hearing about it, so who knows. That doesn't mean he wasn't a class act before, or now. Just means that he wasn't a good mix in Pittsburgh.

netwolf wrote:Does Recchi come out of the Canes' locker room slamming beers, or was that limited to his recent tour of duty here?

I hope so. He'd fit right in with the rest of the guys here enjoying this dream season for us.

LOL - j/k.

Oh, feel free to say it. You guys are having a dream season and should enjoy every last minute of it. They don't happen very often.

Oh, BTW, Canes-KA14, I hope you stick around here with us, or at least pop in from time to time. It is a joy to have a fan of another team that doesn't come on here and act like a troll (where have you gone, FlyerNation ). Most of us are pretty cool to deal with 8) .

Daniel wrote:I think both sides are right with Recchi. I think he had a bad few months in the locker room. I don't know if this is true, but we keep hearing about it, so who knows. That doesn't mean he wasn't a class act before, or now. Just means that he wasn't a good mix in Pittsburgh.

Daniel I really think that's a possibility too. We know about chemistry & we also know that we can't possibly like everyone in our office or workplace just because we work for the same company. There will be clashes & some of them will get aired. But generally, from all I've ever heard anyway, Recchi was always a helpmate & booster of the other guys on the team.

BCHill says-

Ginger, I'm glad someone on this board has some common sense.

Amazing how everyone but 2 people - Madden and Bowser - claim the opposite about Recchi.

Personal experience shows me he is a class act.

BC, do you notice they are always quoting their sources yet neither of them give a source? Journalistic integrity? I think not.

MCM says-

Oh, BTW, Canes-KA14, I hope you stick around here with us, or at least pop in from time to time. It is a joy to have a fan of another team that doesn't come on here and act like a troll (where have you gone, FlyerNation Question ). Most of us are pretty cool to deal with Cool .

I agree with Mike! Especially under the recent circumstances & all. I know everyone can get by this if we want to & I know I'm pulling for the Canes to do really well.

Ginger, why are you so quick to dismiss comments made about Recchi? There are way too many 'rumors' out there to think that none of what has been mentioned about Recchi is true. Recchi is looking out for Recchi right now.

Ginger wrote: Daniel I really think that's a possibility too. We know about chemistry & we also know that we can't possibly like everyone in our office or workplace just because we work for the same company. There will be clashes & some of them will get aired. But, from all I've ever heard anyway, Recchi was always a helpmate & booster of the other guys on the team.

What is the saying. It takes 10 minutes to get a bad reputation and 20 years to get rid of it? Recchi could have been nice for 15 years, but tangle with Sid and Christenson (assuming the reports are correct) and that makes him an instant cancer. Whether that is fair or not is irrelevent, it is the perception.

HOmer, I've responded to the accusations about Recchi being a cancer in the Philadelphia locker room with articles mentioning other players but not him. After all the hype about him being a cancer there so therefore the accusations here must be correct, suddenly it's "well, I don't care what happened in Philadelphia". The connection is broken, but yet the accusers don't want to give up on their stand because they want to believe he is a bad apple. History shows he isn't.

Stoosh, you admit that Madden exaggerates for ratings, right? So when he says he was told that Recchi, LeClair and Odelein sit in the corner all day and talk about the good old days, do you really think that is the way it is or do you think they had a discussion about their days in Montreal and that was it? Should they keep quiet about the fact they all played with each other in another city at one time or another? If so, why? So they can talk about Nine Inch Nails with the kids? Since when was there a moratorium on what can or can't be talked about in the locker room?

And Recchi blasted Sid about his bad penalties without praising him along with it? Sheesh! What is this world coming to? When I discipline my kids I don't tell them first how wonderful they are. What is this, New Age leadership? "Well, Sid, you are clearly the best player in the world and without you we'd be in last place, but ... oh, come on over here where no one else can hear us ... well, it's like this, see, you've been told numerous times to stop complaining to the refs because it hurts both you and the team, but yet you keep on doing it. Can you tell me how you feel about this? Here, have a cup of tea first."

Sid is only lucky he didn't have Mark Messier in the dressing room after that game. He'd now have a brand new a-hole in his rump and he'd also have a threat to be thrown off the plane in midair on the next road trip if he ever dares to talk to the refs like that again.

Sid doesn't need to be coddled, and later on in his career he will appreciate what others tried to do for him this year. Right now, he's acting like the child he is.

Personally, I find nothing wrong with anything that happened in the locker room that day. If Sid doesn't want to be told of his transgressions in front of the rest of the team then he shouldn't make them. But he showed the whole hockey world what he is all about with his childish behavior on the ice, so why is he so upset that he was called on it? At some point when a player won't listen - and plenty of people have told him about his yapping - he's going to be told in front of others where he's going to be embarrassed. Tough ****. Deal with it kid. Then learn from it.

Ginger wrote: Daniel I really think that's a possibility too. We know about chemistry & we also know that we can't possibly like everyone in our office or workplace just because we work for the same company. There will be clashes & some of them will get aired. But, from all I've ever heard anyway, Recchi was always a helpmate & booster of the other guys on the team.

What is the saying. It takes 10 minutes to get a bad reputation and 20 years to get rid of it? Recchi could have been nice for 15 years, but tangle with Sid and Christenson (assuming the reports are correct) and that makes him an instant cancer. Whether that is fair or not is irrelevent, it is the perception.

It is the perception only on this board with this particular group of fans. Using the word 'cancer' to describe Mark Recchi is the most assinine thing in the world.

When it starts happening with more players now that Recchi is elsewhere, everyone will see where the true problem lies.

When Eric Lindros was in Philly it was always everyone else who was wrong and not him. The media protected him. They admitted later that they didn't tell the "whole truth". But after he got the equipment guy - a really great person - fired for allegedly "sharpening his skates wrong on purpose so that he'd fall" and accusing teammates of purposely passing the puck into his skates, and not passing the puck to him, and Bob Clarke tried to kill him, and the trainer not knowing he had a serious injury, it started becomming apparent who the real problem was. Now he's in Toronto and is accusing them of doing him harm. I really hope Sid doesn't go down this road, but I see it happening if he doesn't straighten out real quick.

Ginger wrote: Daniel I really think that's a possibility too. We know about chemistry & we also know that we can't possibly like everyone in our office or workplace just because we work for the same company. There will be clashes & some of them will get aired. But, from all I've ever heard anyway, Recchi was always a helpmate & booster of the other guys on the team.

What is the saying. It takes 10 minutes to get a bad reputation and 20 years to get rid of it? Recchi could have been nice for 15 years, but tangle with Sid and Christenson (assuming the reports are correct) and that makes him an instant cancer. Whether that is fair or not is irrelevent, it is the perception.

It is the perception only on this board with this particular group of fans. Using the word 'cancer' to describe Mark Recchi is the most assinine thing in the world.

When it starts happening with more players now that Recchi is elsewhere, everyone will see where the true problem lies.

When Eric Lindros was in Philly it was always everyone else who was wrong and not him. The media protected him. They admitted later that they didn't tell the "whole truth". But after he got the equipment guy - a really great person - fired for allegedly "sharpening his skates wrong on purpose so that he'd fall" and accusing teammates of purposely passing the puck into his skates, and not passing the puck to him, and Bob Clarke tried to kill him, and the trainer not knowing he had a serious injury, it started becomming apparent who the real problem was. Now he's in Toronto and is accusing them of doing him harm. I really hope Sid doesn't go down this road, but I see it happening if he doesn't straighten out real quick.

Whatever "Winger13". Why don't you just admit that Recchi is your dad?

dboss wrote:Ginger, why are you so quick to dismiss comments made about Recchi? There are way too many 'rumors' out there to think that none of what has been mentioned about Recchi is true. Recchi is looking out for Recchi right now.

It's not so much that I'm quick to dismiss anything. It's that I'm not quick to jump on a rumor wagon. You've got to admit that fans, whether sports fans or celebrity fans love this sort of thing. Why do you think there's those wonderfully telling papers & magazines at checkout stands? People love reading about somebody getting divorced, beat up, drunked up, drugged up, stood up, knocked up & generally anything that is unsavory. I don't know why that is, just human nature I guess.

But I can't see after all these years of Recchi being appreciated wherever he's played & that being documented unlike these rumors, then all of a sudden he's a blight to the team?
I guess I'm just not cut out to be a back fence gossiper.